Cute Snacks Unite! DIY Reusable Snack Bags

In my never-ending quest to slowly, but surely, convert our family to non-processed organic foods, I quickly realized a problem. And it’s a big one since I have small children. I never thought about this until I started packing our own healthy snacks to take with us to play dates, preschool, and sporting events, but it’s a big deal (at least in the kid world!). Are you ready to hear my problem? Brace yourself….

Our snacks aren’t cute.

Not one bit.

They’re in clear plastic zip bags. No artificial dyes to make it colorful. No princesses, race cars or cartoon characters.

Nothing. Just a plain ol’ snack.

While I’m not on a mission to make our healthy snacks look like the unhealthy ones just to get my kids to eat them, I do feel bad that they aren’t as cute and colorful as the rest of their friends.

So what’s a momma to do?

I had a light bulb moment when I ran across some personalized tags online. Kiddo Tags are dishwasher and microwave safe, waterproof and weather-proof (UV-Resistant). Here’s the best part…

Drum roll please….

They have 150 cute characters that you can choose from to put on your tags. And that’s when I had the “light bulb” moment!

I would create snack bags that were fun and colorful and put these tags on them. Who says you can’t have your (organic) cake and eat it too?

These are super simple to make, fold out flat to provide a clean eating surface for your child, and are easy to clean with a little soap and water.

Here are the supplies you will need:

6″X12″ cotton fabric

6″X12″ vinyl fabric (I used laminated fabric)

12″ sew on velcro

Labels

Start by ironing 1/4″ of your cotton fabric. Since the iron would have melted my laminated fabric I used a small dowel rod (a pencil or pen would work too!) and pressed it around all 4 sides. This will create a nice crease.

Here’s what your fabric should look like after ironing/pressing around the edges:

Now you will need to pin down your velcro. Take your 12″ velcro strip and cut it into three 4″ strips. Pull apart your first strip and pin it to your laminate fabric. Start pinning at the bottom about 1/4″ away from your bottom crease and 1/4″ away from the right side crease.

You will want to butt the fuzzy velcro side to the rough velcro side like this:

Repeat on the left side of your laminate fabric, making sure that you pin your velcro 1/4″ inch away from your creases. Then you will pin a strip of velcro to the top of your laminate fabric – 1/4″ away from the top crease. Pin your last strip of velcro to the cotton fabric – 1/4″ away from the top crease.

Sew around all 4 edges of every strip of Velcro (you will have 6 strips)

Now, you will pin your 2 fabrics together, making sure to keep your creases tucked inside.

Make sure your top velcro strips are on opposite ends when you pin together.

Sew around all 4 sides where you pinned the fabrics together. And voila! You now can Velcro the sides and top of your bag together.

Then I attached a label to the front of the snack bag. Mabel’s Labels are our favorite way to personalize things! They offer labels for everything. Clothes, lunchboxes, pencils, or these darling snack bags. No change of getting things mixed up between kids!

Add your healthy snack (or unhealthy – don’t worry, no judgement here) and enjoy! You can feel good about yourself that you are doing your part to help Mother Nature.

And look at this cute eating surface! Aren’t you so proud of yourself?!

And these Mabels Labels are perfect for my daughter to take to play dates and preschool. No more boring plastic bags for us! She loves to see her cute little name, personalized with an owl graphic she choose (among many to choose from!) on her stuff! Makes things even more fun.